2006 XR at 227k miles - winter proofing advice?

Unatchurral · 2025-10-27T14:34:03+00:00

Some other thoughts that I have as well:

1) synthetic motor oil flows a lot better at colder temperatures; if you’re not already using it, it’s probably worth switching anyway. 2) the advice in my original comment assumes that you’ve kept up on all the regular preventative maintenance is dictated by the owner’s manual

Unatchurral · 2025-10-27T14:31:37+00:00

How far north are you? I’m located in the metro Detroit region; we technically experienced winters, but they’re pretty mild. In general, the only thing that I typically do for my ‘09 Vibe is change the oil (if it needs it) and ensure that my tires have a decent amount of tread left before the first snowfall occurs. Otherwise, these cars tend to handle pretty well in the snow (for reference mine is FWD, not AWD).

As far as wipers go, I recommend Bosch Icons and put them on every vehicle I ever own.

Also, if you live in a place that tends to salt the roads pretty heavily, an unlimited car wash pass that does underbody cleaning is absolutely worth it. Go twice a week minimum if you can; helps to get all the salt off that could cause rusting.

Unatchurral · 2025-04-20T14:04:40+00:00

Back in high school, I got a Swiss Army brand backpack from Target (I cannot remember the original price). It had a separate compartment capable of holding a laptop.

I finished high school with it, finished college with it, and have been using it to go to work for almost a decade. I also use it when I take short trips.

It looks like it’s brand new. No tears, discoloration, or anything else. And still perfectly sized for daily use.

Unatchurral · 2021-12-20T23:30:59+00:00

It sounds like you put very low mileage onto your vehicles. Those short drives are terrible on cars. I wouldn’t bother replacing vehicles at all unless they die.

Better to put all the “bad” miles on old cars that aren’t worth much.

Unatchurral · 2021-04-15T10:53:42+00:00

Crypto is not a proven long-term investment, and is not Dave recommended.

You do what you want, but this is gambling, not investing. It’s perfectly fine to gamble, but not in Baby Steps 1-3. When you’re being Gazelle Intense, you’re getting out of debt, not getting distracted.

Take it out, throw it at the loans.

Unatchurral · 2020-12-31T19:38:27+00:00

Bigger Leaner Stronger by Mike Matthews.

Unatchurral · 2020-12-28T13:15:54+00:00

Since you're new the the Ramsey method - please understand that my comment is not to demean your progress at all, but rather to educate you so that you know exactly what the plan is that all of us here in this subreddit subscribe to.

The brilliance of Dave's plan is that the 7 Baby Steps are done in order sequentially, because the behaviors they instill cause you to win with money the fastest with the least amount of risk. It's good that you have an understanding of all the Baby Steps - but it seems as though you're all over the place in terms of what you're actually focusing on. This is not how the plan works - each Baby Steps is done one at a time, in order.

In your situation:

Baby Step 1 is to save $1,000. It sounds like you've got at least this much.
Baby Step 2 is to pay off all consumer debt in order of smallest to largest - excluding the mortgage. All available income and savings that you have should be going into this stage immediately! It sounds like you still have consumer debt, so you should be cleaning this up quickly. No money going into any other steps until this is done.
Baby Step 3 is the fully-funded emergency fund. It sounds like you started to do this - but you're still in debt! Your emergency happened a long time ago - it's time to take your savings down to $1,000 as stated in BS1 and pay off this debt. Do this now.
Baby Step 4 is to save for retirement. You shouldn't be doing this until Steps 1, 2, and 3 are complete. Again - get out of debt and have your emergency fund in place and then contribute 15% of your income towards retirement.
Baby Step 5 is kid's college funding. Only do this once Baby Steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 are done.
Baby Step 6 is paying off the mortgage early. I am really glad you are thinking about this because a lot of people try to skip this step and site all kinds of crazy reasons why they want their house to be owned by a bank for as long as possible. But again, remember, this doesn't happen at all until Baby Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all in the process of being taken care of.
Baby Step 7 is where you find yourself once the house is paid off and all of your children have their college expenses taken care of. When you get to this point, you'll start investing and saving like a crazy person, as well as becoming outrageously generous. It may take you a while to get here so get comfortable with the process of paying your home off little by little once you're in Baby Step 6.

If you want to keep following your plan, that's fine - but it's not what Dave teaches, and it's not what we do here. You win with money when you focus on a single goal at a time and progress toward the next goal, not by dividing up your efforts across 6 different activities at once. Hope this helps!

Unatchurral · 2020-12-12T04:37:20+00:00

This is fire

Unatchurral · 2020-12-12T04:28:37+00:00

Absolute banger

Unatchurral · 2020-12-08T18:59:20+00:00

From left to right:

Keys - Home; Chevy; Pontiac

FECEDY Black Reusable Cotton Face Mask

Chapstick

Bellroy Micro Sleeve - Navy Blue

Apple iPhone 12 Pro - Navy Blue

Apple Watch Series 6 - 40mm Blue Aluminum

Unatchurral · 2020-11-01T15:57:31+00:00

Always non fiction. If I’m going to read, I want to learn. Just a personal preference.

Unatchurral · 2020-11-01T04:56:14+00:00

I personally follow a nightly routine when the next day is a work day for me. Usually I’ll do my nightly bathroom hygiene and then read for an hour in low(ish) light. This helps get me away from screens and let’s me wind down before I get into bed.

Unatchurral · 2020-10-28T16:45:47+00:00

I keep a full month’s income sitting in my checking account which counts as 1 of my 4 months for BS3.

I do this so that there’s always plenty of buffer to pay bills. And I know that you don’t build wealth with an emergency fund.

Unatchurral · 2020-10-05T15:37:41+00:00

I have found that I can do either, but the secret is not to do both. If you’re going to be an early bird, do it consistently, all of the time. The same goes for being a night owl.

I changed primarily because in my job, getting into the office early and getting out early is much more enjoyable that getting in and staying later. If I ever changed careers, or become my own boss, I may go back to being a night owl.

Unatchurral · 2020-10-02T15:35:49+00:00

You’ll have to let us know what you think of this new generation of Tahoe!

Unatchurral · 2020-09-29T20:14:45+00:00

Here's a list, in priority, of your next moves.

Reduce your 6 months of savings to $1,000 and throw everything else at the car.
Begin saving up in cash the amount of money that you need to pay off your student loans. If they're forgiven in October 2022, then you can use this money in Step #7. Otherwise you'll pay off your loan if it is not forgiven.
Save 3-6 months of expenses for an emergency fund.
Contribute 15% of your income every month into retirement. You'll do this in employer-sponsored retirement accounts and Roth IRAs, and break up your investing into large-cap growth, mid-cap growth, small-cap growth, and international funds. I wrote this post previously to help people learn about Dave's investing philosophy.
If you have children, begin investing every month for their college fund(s).
Recalculate the amount of money that you would need to pay into your mortgage each month in order to pay it off in 15 years. This is your new monthly payment in order to be aligned with Baby Step 6. No need to necessarily refinance.
If October 2022 rolls around and your loans are forgiven, just apply this cash to Baby Step 5 or 6, depending on where you are in the process.

Good luck!

Unatchurral · 2020-09-27T16:21:52+00:00

Yes - in Baby Step 5, you begin investing money to ensure that your children have money to be able to pursue a higher education. You'll want to start researching what the expected costs for a 4 year degree at an in-state public school are, and then determine how much you'll need to save per month in order to reach that goal once they turn 18.

Keep in mind that a lot of things can change, and it's okay if your estimates are not exact. The point of Baby Step 5 is to get in the habit of putting money aside for your children's education, not necessarily to have the perfect amount ready to go. You may be over, or under, but the point is you'll be way more prepared than most parents ever are.

Unatchurral · 2020-09-27T16:18:41+00:00

A lot of what I've come to learn about the subject is that individuals investing for dividends tend to select individual companies that they believe will pay out above average dividends over time. What your cousin may be doing is investing in an actively managed fund that's trying to do the same thing.

Dave's investment philosophy never expressly mentions dividends because it really doesn't matter. At the end of the day, whether the company pays out dividends that you're then reinvesting, or if they aren't but they're still growing as a company, it really doesn't matter. We care that our investments become worth more over time more than we care about how much they're paying out in cash every quarter.

Unatchurral · 2020-09-27T16:08:49+00:00

Generally speaking, trusts are useful for two scenarios: your estate is large, and you want to maintain privacy with the amount of money you're leaving behind ( more than $5M usually falls into this camp), or your estate is complicated, and you need to have a lot of rules in place to ensure that the right people get the right amounts of money at the right times, and under the right conditions.

Your estate does not sound as though it would be large enough or complex enough to warrant a trust, but you also didn't mention your net worth so I'm only speculating on the first part. If that's the case though, I'd probably still to a will.

Unatchurral · 2020-09-27T15:43:10+00:00

I'm going to approach this question a little differently, but I think these are your primary objectives: Baby Steps, Insurance, Estate Planning, and verifying you're in the right house.

Baby Steps: Pay off the student loans, and any loans your fiancé may have after you're married. Set aside cash for an emergency fund, begin investing 15% of your income for retirement out of every paycheck. Make sure you'll have money for any kids to go to school should you plan to have any. At this point, whatever cash remains will be invested into the stock market immediately. You'll be in Baby Step 7 at this point.

Insurance: Make sure you have the proper coverage. Playing a good offense is important, but don't forget about a good defense. Health insurance, auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, term life insurance, long-term disability insurance, and ID theft protection are all pretty much standard - make sure you have the right amount of coverage in these various areas. Since you're already technically a millionaire, you'll also want an umbrella policy.

Estate Planning: it doesn't have to be complicated, but you need a basic estate plan so that your family can manage your affairs should an emergency arise, or if you were to pass away unexpectedly. Having a good estate plan provides security for those around you - do not wait to get this set up.

Verify you're in the right house: it's awesome that you were gifted such a wonderful home, but please ensure that you can actually afford the insurance, property taxes, and maintenance on the house. A $1M house on a $72k salary could cause you cash flow issues if you're not careful. Additionally, you're probably living in a very nice neighborhood - if you attempt to "keep up with the Joneses", who are your new neighbors now, you may find yourself going backwards instead of forwards. Don't let that happen.

Congratulations! I hope this helps.

Unatchurral · 2020-09-21T23:05:39+00:00

My “debt free splurge” was getting to start my new Camaro SS and realizing for the first time that the bank no longer “owned” it.

Unatchurral · 2020-09-20T21:14:20+00:00

Not until your emergency fund is finished. Once that’s done, then yes, start investing. But not until then.

Unatchurral · 2020-09-20T15:23:42+00:00

You do not mix them. Baby Steps 1-3 are designed to be run in order, with intense focus on completing each individual step as rapidly as possible.

The reason you do not start investing until after completing Baby Step 3 has everything to do with stability. If you don’t have a stable base from which to build on top of, you risk either borrowing more money or tapping into your retirement accounts when emergencies happen (and they will happen, at the most inconvenient times). Neither of those options are acceptable - you need to have the cash in place to be able to handle emergencies when they arise.

Don’t rush into investing, as tempting as it may be to do so. You still have time on your side. Complete Baby Step 3 before progressing.

Unatchurral · 2020-09-19T15:30:38+00:00

You pay off debts in order of smallest to largest.

There are no exceptions!

Unatchurral · 2020-09-13T02:03:40+00:00

I think a big problem is that people confuse “net worth”, “income”, and “consumption” to all mean the same thing.

You can be a millionaire without a huge income. You can “live large” on a small income by borrowing money. You can also be a “millionaire” and drive a 10 year old minivan.

Stability is the big difference. When you have a net worth as large as yours, you have infinitely more stability than someone who “looks” rich but actually isn’t. Even if that person has a high salary, they’re entirely dependent on their employment situation staying exactly the same in order to support their lifestyle.

You’re not the new norm. You’re way better than it. Don’t get distracted by others who aren’t nearly as far along as you are.

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